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Students shouldn’t be forced to swear oath to Queen: Hepburn

The Halton Catholic District School Board should rescind an unwise throwback to an outdated era

There’s strong public opinion across Canada that, as an independent nation, we should no long require our citizens, including schoolchildren, to bow and scrape to a foreign rulers, even one like Queen Elizabeth who is widely respected, writes Bob Hepburn.
(Chris Jackson / AP)

In a giant step backward in time, Catholic school students, teachers and principals in Halton Region are now being forced to recite allegiance to Queen Elizabeth.

The move, mandated last month by elected trustees at the Halton Catholic District School Board, means the 31,000 students plus all staff in the school system must swear allegiance at the start of every single school day to a foreign monarch who lives oversees and rarely visits this country.

The Halton board is believed to be the only one in Ontario to issue such a ridiculous order.

In recent days, local critics of the policy have taken to social media, saying the oath is a throwback to the days when Orange Ontario was dominated by residents whose ancestry traced back to England and Scotland and that it deliberately ignores the multicultural environment in which we live today.

The board oversees 45 elementary schools, nine secondary schools and three continuing education facilities covering Oakville, Burlington, Milton and Halton Hills. Many students at those schools or their parents originally came from countries where the Queen means nothing or, in some cases, is a symbol of historic oppression under British colonial rule.

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Also, there’s strong public opinion across Canada that, as an independent nation, we should no long require our citizens, including schoolchildren, to bow and scrape to a foreign rulers, even one like Queen Elizabeth who is widely respected.

Even people who aren’t anti-monarchists recoil from the idea of people in Canada having to swear an oath to the Queen of England, who is also constitutionally at least the Queen of Canada. Reciting the oath is required for anyone becoming a citizen or in many places becoming an elected official.

As one parent said in an email to me, “Clearly the school board trustees are completely void of any original ideas or thoughts on progressive education methods to teach our children about government. Instituting a daily oath to the Queen has nothing to do with learning about modern government and everything to do with a questionable political agenda and confusing our kids.”

Despite the protests, the Halton board is sticking with its motion, suggesting senior staff brought it forward because the oath was being said in some schools and they wanted to standardize the practice across the board.

The board’s approved motion reads: “The Oath of Citizenship shall form part of every opening exercise. Students and staff shall participate in the Oath of Citizenship.”

The oath reads:

“I affirm that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, Queen of Canada, and her heirs and successors, and that I will faithfully observe the laws of Canada and fulfil my duties as a Canadian citizen.”

The only students who don’t have to recite the oath are those under 18 whose parent or guardian applies to the school principal for an exemption or students 18 and older who have applied themselves for an exemption.

Paul Marai, an Oakville trustee who chairs the board’s policy committee that presented the motion, said in an email that the opt-out process was adopted for those who don’t support taking the oath. “Compromise and respecting difference is a key part of our proud history,” he said.

Marai, who is active in Conservative party politics, backs the motion because it’s about civics and history. “We have a knowledge deficit in this country on how our government works, who our head of state is and how we came to be,” he said. “This policy was put in place to spark discussion in our classroom on our history and our unique structure of government.”

Marai added that the board encourages students to think critically, but also to be introspective on what it means to fulfil one’s duties as a Canadian citizen.

Real critical thinking, though, would lead most people to the conclusion that being a Canadian today means understanding and accepting our diversity and multiculturalism and that being a true independent country means we are respectful to, but not subjects of, a foreign monarch.

That’s why the Halton Catholic District School Board should rescind this unwise and unnecessary decision.

Surely the elected trustees have more pressing issues on which to focus their attention than trying to foist an outdated vestige of British rule on our young children.

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